Arrested Development Season Five Will Be a Murder Mystery

When Arrested Development debuted its fourth season back in 2013, having been revived from the cancellation grave by Netflix, it wasn't an entirely triumphant return. Fans and critics alike were divided over the show's newly experimental format, which saw its ensemble cast largely separated from each other, telling a fragmented puzzle-box story that only came together in its final moments.

But that season was really just setup for what comes next, ending with Buster (Tony Hale) arrested for the murder of Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli). And now that Season Five is officially on its way, we'll get to see that "whodunit" mystery play out in full.

"The central spine of that story of is the death of Liza Minnelli's character, and a bit of whodunit, who may have done it, who had something to do with it,"Jason Bateman told EW Radio."That's sort of a central thread around which [creator Mitch Hurwitz] is going to braid in all the colorful plot complications." Season Four was just the first act, Bateman confirmed, and this season is the second, and the third act will follow in a theoretical sixth season "if we can all get it together at a later date, maybe in another few years."

But here's the really good news, if you're one of the many viewers who felt cheated by how little time the Bluth clan actually spent together on-screen in season four: Hurwitz knows it didn't work, and Bateman confirms the cast are acting together much more in the upcoming season. "Because of certain limitations we had with actors' schedules and exclusivities to other shows, and budgetary constraints, [Hurwitz] had to pivot a bit off of that," Bateman reflected. "He was embracing the interface of Netflix, which was fairly new at the time in original programming, and wanted to be able to basically have you click out of one episode and click into somebody else's episode and see a different view point on this simultaneous action. Ultimately, editorially, it didn't really come together as well as he wanted it to, and then he had to dictate an order of watching, and it ended up being a little bit more complicated than I think one intended. But we're still very proud of those episodes obviously—and really excited that we get to be together in these."

So now the only real question is whether Buster will enlist Barry Zuckerkorn or Bob Loblaw as his defense counsel.

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